30 December 2014

Rolls-Royce is not only “another” risk sharing partner in the A350 program. It is the main partner of Airbus as unique engine supplier.

Source: Rolls-Royce

Eric Schulz, President – Civil Large Engines at Rolls-Royce and Rolls Royce CEO was sharing table with Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Brégier and Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker last 22/Dec during the 1st Delivery ceremony.

Source: Manuel Belleli

To make sure there are no hitches, the Trent XWB engine has been through almost 11.000 hours of testing in the air and on the ground.

“By far we spent the most hours testing on this,” said Tony Wood, head of Rolls-Royce’s aerospace division.

“In terms of performance, we are very, very close to where we need to be and we already have plans to exceed this.”

Source: Airbus

Rolls-Royce is preparing for the aggressive ramp-up as Airbus is planning to go from making 2 aircraft currently to close to 10 by the end of 2018. And there is already talk of potentially increasing to as many as 15 further out.

This is an enormous industrial challenge, including at Rolls-Royce, as it struggles to make its civil aerospace business more efficient by cutting costs.

Airbus and Rolls-Royce also have to be sure their suppliers are up to the job.

Ironically, it is not the biggest who pose the greatest risk, but the smaller suppliers. “They will have to be watched closely,” says one industry executive.

Based on the article “Airbus A350 readies for take-off” published in Financial Times.

29 December 2014

Airbus Training will see its revolutionary “learning by discovery” pilot and engineer type-rating training system put to the test for the first time next month as Airbus A350 launch customer Qatar Airways prepares to put its aircraft into service.

Source: Airbus

Director of A350 flight operations and training support for Airbus, Christian Norden, said customer feedback from all the early A350 buyers had so far been unanimously enthusiastic, as had the reaction of the national aviation authorities.

Meanwhile the EASA and the US FAA have accepted the A350 as a variant of the A330 series, thus according it a common type rating.

Source: engadget

Norden said Airbus had noticed major changes in what airlines look for when introducing a new aircraft into service. “The days of rewriting manuals are gone – even for the legacy carriers,” he said.

“It’s a cost issue, but the complexity is too high now. And where manuals used to be written by development engineers, now they are written by Airbus flight operations engineers, with the customers.”

Source: Rami Khanna-Prade

The “learning by discovery” concept puts pilots into the A350 full flight simulator to experiment with the full range of aircraft manual handling characteristics far earlier in the type rating course than is traditionally the case.

Airbus has also introduced new training tools that extend that philosophy.

It introduces pilots to the flightdeck and its systems via a virtual display that allows them to scan 360° around the instrument and control panels, push buttons with mouse-clicks, and see the results.

Based on the article “A350 training wins industry approval” published in Flight Global.

28 December 2014

In this article, it is concluded that Airbus failed in predicting or anticipating future competitors on the market. “They came up with the Airbus A350 XWB, which is a perfect competitor for the current 777 but cannot compete with the Boeing 777X. The Airbus A350 is too small to compete with the upcoming Boeing counterparts. This might mean that Boeing will be leading the lucrative medium-wide-body sector.”

Source: M@rchy

A first comparison between A350-1000 and 777X concluded that when the Airbus A350-1000 will enter service in 2017 it will probably be the most efficient aircraft in the skies. Boeing's reply to the Airbus A350-1000 came in the form of the Boeing 777X –that is the better and more efficient aircraft- and Airbus does not seem to have an answer to that.

Source: Airbus

In order to compete with the Boeing 777X, Airbus might decide to launch the A350-1100, a stretch of the Airbus A350-1000. But based on payload and range data, it is stated that this A350-1100 will not be able to efficiently compete with 777X. Airlines will favour 777-9X over Airbus A350-1000.

Source: Airbus

What a stretch of the Airbus A350-1000 means is higher capacity, lower range and added structural weight. The addition of structural weight (for the added frames and sizing needed for the wings) as well as increase in payload will considerably decrease the range of a possible Airbus A350-1100. So a stretched version only is able to compete with the Boeing 777-9X in terms of capacity, but will lack the range capability of the Boeing 777-9X. To place a significantly more efficient engine on the Airbus A350 to increase the range could be a possibility.

Source: M@rchy

Order numbers also show that the Boeing 777X is favored over the Airbus A350-1000; few airlines are buying the Boeing 777-8X (43 orders) that will be the ultra-long range leader, but airlines are favoring the Boeing 777-9X (243 orders) that has higher capacity over the Airbus A350-1000 (169 orders).

Source: M@rchy

The Airbus A350-1000 has not received any orders in a year now. And since the launch of the Boeing 777X, Airbus only received 3 orders for the Airbus A350-1000.

Based on the article “Why Boeing Does Not Need To Worry About A Possible Airbus A350-1100” published in Seeking Alpha

27 December 2014

In an interview in Les Echos, President and CEO of Airbus Fabrice Brégier said that the start of the Program in December/2006 was difficult.

"Our resources were still mobilized en masse on the A380, the French & German teams were not coordinated, tools were not harmonized and preliminary tests on composite fuselage panels were not even completed."

It is also during this phase that we have been delayed on the initial planning (around 1 year delay). But we did it wisely. Because one of the greatest lessons-learned from the past was to avoid jeopardizing the first years of development. Otherwise, we might pay it dearly during the industrialization phase.

We therefore preferred a little slip in the master schedule on the early stages of development to acquire more maturity, which allowed us to avoid delays during the past two years.

Based on the interview to Fabrice Brégier: « L’enjeu de l’A350, c’est prendre la moitié d’un marché de mille milliards de dollars » published in Les Echos.

26 December 2014

Rolls-Royce is accelerating the manufacturing work on the initial test batch of the Trent XWB-97 variant for the A350-1000 in parallel to the production ramp-up of the Trent XWB-84 engine for A350-900.

Source: Airbus

The XWB-97 is the highest thrust production engine ever developed by Rolls-Royce, and made its first ground test run in mid-July.

The engine, which will be rated at 97,000 lb. thrust, has “run to 99,000 lb. thrust and will go above that before it gets certificated,” said XWB program director Simon Burr. “Three other test engines are in build. The 1st is in horizontal build and will run shortly, the 2nd is in final assembly and the 3rd in module build.”

Source: Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce has also begun the assembly of the 1st engine destined to fly on the Airbus A380 flying testbed today 26/Dec, and expects the unit to become airborne early in the 3Q/2015.

Source: Airbus

The first 8 flight-engines, and possibly more than that, will run through a pre-production line specially established to iron out any initial manufacturing and assembly issues without interrupting the flow of XWB-84 engines. The flight test engines will be delivered later in 2015 in the build-up to first flight of the A350-1000 in 2016.

Externally identical to the 84,000 lb. thrust XWB-84, the XWB-97 is designed to power the 679,000 lb. maximum take-off weight A350-1000 on ranges up to 8,400 naut. mi.

This will have to be achieved with the same efficiency of the baseline engine, using the same 118 in. diameter fan and external nacelle packaging.

Around 150 hours of total test time have so far been amassed on the first engine says Burr. “So there is a huge amount to do, but we have made a good start.”

Source: Airbus

“The next engine will be fully instrumented,” says Burr.

Additional engines will be used for type testing, icing, cross wind and water ingestion work.

Although building on the XWB-84 foundation, the coming tests will focus initially on the newer design aspects of the XWB-97, specifically the higher flow fan which turns 6% faster than the -84 and pumps more air.

Source: Airbus

The XWB-97 is also designed with a 5% larger core and higher temperature capability as well as unshrouded high pressure turbine blades.

Based on the article “Rolls-Royce Begins Building First A350-1000 Flying Testbed Engine” published in Aviation Week.

25 December 2014

When in an interview in Les Echos, President and CEO of Airbus Fabrice Brégier is asked about the historical mean of the A350 delivery to Qatar Airways, he emphasizes that the A350 is the 6th aircraft designed by Airbus in 45 years of history.

The last clean-sheet new aircraft delivered was the A380 in 2007 and before there were the A300, A320, A340 and A330. Other models are and will be derivatives.

And the future? The A350 XWB is the last new jet from Airbus or Boeing until at least next decade.

Well-controlled development.

Source: Airbus

Mr. Bregier points out the satisfaction of having overall well-controlled a very complex development, without delay on the last 2 years. "In the opinion of the experts, the A350 is the program with the better development performance of the history of aeronautics.

This is the result of a huge mobilization, the Head of Program Didier Evrard, his Chief Engineer Gordon McConnell but also thousands of engineers and highly motivated team to meet this challenge, which we can all be very proud!"

Based on the interview to Fabrice Brégier: « L’enjeu de l’A350, c’est prendre la moitié d’un marché de mille milliards de dollars » published in Les Echos.

Qatar Airways has ordered 80 of the world’s most advanced airliners and the on-time, on-quality delivery is the culmination of 8 years’ hard work from everyone involved in the A350 XWB program.

Fabrice Brégier, Airbus President and CEO said: “Handing over the first A350 XWB represents a significant step in Airbus and aviation history.”

“The A350 XWB becomes the most modern aircraft in service, developed with our excellence established over 45 years in meeting our customers’ needs. “

“The A350 XWB is the latest Airbus aircraft to join the skies, revolutionising our industry and redefining the way people fly.”

He adds: “It is with tremendous pride that we are delivering our first A350 XWB today to our launch customer, Qatar Airways. It’s a perfect match, to be handing over the first of an all-new, world class aircraft to a leading, world class airline.”

John Rishton, Rolls-Royce, Chief Executive Officer said: “It is the culmination of years of hard work and the start of a new chapter for our business.”

Pictures Source Airbus

Based on the press release “Opening a new chapter in aviation, first delivery of A350 XWB to Qatar Airways”, based on the press release “Airbus delivers first ever A350 XWB to Qatar Airways” and based on the article “Qatar Airways Takes Delivery Of First Airbus A350” published in Aviation Week.

This was achieved on 22/December when A350 XWB MSN006 was delivered to launch customer Qatar Airways, widely recognized for insisting on the highest possible standards for its passengers.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said, “Receiving the A350 XWB as global launch customer is a very proud moment for Qatar Airways, and after much anticipation, I am delighted that the day has come when we will welcome this latest generation aircraft into our rapidly expanding fleet.

“In the 7 years since we first placed our order for this new aircraft type at the Paris Air Show, investing in a partnership program with Airbus, there has been significant growth in the airline industry.”

“I am confident that this increase in passenger numbers around the world will only increase further in the years to come, and delighted that Qatar Airways will be leading the way in the aviation sector in offering our passengers the opportunity to travel on board the most modern of airliners in the sky.”

The A350 XWB fits seamlessly alongside Qatar Airways’ growing fleet of A380s and A330s, making the carrier the world’s first airline to operate each member of Airbus’ market leading Widebody Family.

Qatar Airways’ A350 XWBs, in combination with their A380s and A330s, will offer unprecedented levels of interoperability and comfort on the rapidly expanding Qatar Airways network of excellence.

This ceremony in Toulouse has followed the resolution of a few unspecified issues that had nothing to do with Airbus.

The aircraft, MSN006, was initially planned to be delivered more than a week earlier, but that event had been called off at short notice.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the delay had “nothing to do with Airbus,” but was rather linked to unspecified buyer-furnished equipment issues. According to industry sources, several more test flights were required to satisfy Qatar’s demands.

Qatar Airways was going to take delivery of the aircraft on 13/Dec, but that event was canceled at the last minute.

“You are a tough customer, my friend Akbar, a demanding customer, sometimes a little bit too demanding,” Bregier said. But he also hinted that the efforts to satisfy Qatar Airways have made the aircraft better.

The first aircraft is slated to be ferried to Doha on 23/Dec.

Pictures Source Airbus

Based on the press release “Opening a new chapter in aviation, first delivery of A350 XWB to Qatar Airways”, based on the press release “Airbus delivers first ever A350 XWB to Qatar Airways” and based on the article “Qatar Airways Takes Delivery Of First Airbus A350” published in Aviation Week.